Jameela Jamil Has Come Out As Queer: 'it's Scary As an Actor to Openly Admit Your Sexuality'

Jameela Jamil has come out as queer after being criticised for her role as a judge on a new TV show about voguing. After being named as a judge for the US voguing competition show Legendary, she received backlash from people questioning her role on the show as they hadn't thought that she was a member of the LGBTQ+ community, which is where voguing was created.

Following the criticism, Jameela came out in a notes post on Twitter, writing, "Twitter is brutal. This is why I never officially came out as queer. I added a rainbow to my name when I felt ready a few years ago, as it's not easy within the south Asian community to be accepted, and I always answered honestly if ever straight-up asked about it on Twitter.

"But I kept it low because I was scared of the pain of being accused of performative bandwagon jumping, over something that caused me a lot of confusion, fear and turmoil when I was a kid."

She continued, explaining her hesitations around coming out, saying, "I didn't come from a family with *anyone* openly out. It's also scary as an actor to openly admit your sexuality, especially when you're a brown female in your thirties. This is absolutely not how I wanted it to come out."

Jameela added that she was taking a break from Twitter after receiving hate comments in response to the show.

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Explaining her role in the voguing competition, which originated in New York's underground ballroom scene,Jameela said, "I know that being queer doesn't qualify me as ballroom. But I have privilege and power and a large following to bring to this show."

She added, "Sometimes it takes those with more power to help a show get off the ground so we can elevate marginalised stars that deserve the limelight and give them a chance."

Jameela also said that being a newcomer to ballroom and voguing herself, she could provide, "a window in for people who are just discovering it now," adding that she is "a long time ally of the LGBTQ community."

Jameela's tweets were met with support from fans saying they wanted to welcome her to the LGBTQ+ community.

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